‘Make sure you open doors for others behind you so they can get in’

Alberta Transportation Minister Rajan Sawhney keynote of fifth annual Western Women With Drive 

Alberta Transportation Minister Rajan Sawhney was among the speakers at the fifth annual Western Women With Drive presented virtually by AMTA and Trucking HR Canada Oct. 29.

Sawhney, Alberta’s first woman Transportation Minister, said her years in oil and gas prior to politics meant a lot of transferrable skills into her current role. Minister Sawhney had three key discussion points: The impact on women as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruption and leadership in the sector.

“Women have often worked a double shift, meaning that you’re maintaining your household and taking care of children and you’re also pursuing your careers and being very busy in the workplace,” the Minister said.

She added a triple shift created by the pandemic, including online schooling and dealing with childcare had a significant impact on women’s psyches and mental health.

“We know that the government has to do some concerted work, and effort to make sure that women are supported as we navigate through the remainder of this pandemic and get into the endemic,” Minister Sawhney said.

On the topic of supply chain disruption, the Minister recognized what the commercial transportation industry went through in the early days of the pandemic and acknowledged it was “a very difficult time”.

“We also know we are experiencing a significant labour shortage right now, even as we speak,” she said. “That is a very serious issue and I assure you its something that I’m looking at within government.”

The Minister closed with some thoughts on leadership: “Make sure you open doors for others behind you so they can get in.”

The conference panel The Sweatpants Chronicles: How Working From Home Changed the Face of Employment in Alberta was emceed by Trucking HR Canada CEO Angela Splinter and included AMTA Executive Director Kimberley Burfoot, Rosenau Transport Human Resources Manager Kandyce Umbach and WCB-Alberta Industry Specialist Deborah Nilsen.

Umbach spoke to managing employees in the early days of the pandemic.

“Our emergency response plan was key to our success in rolling out a human element, a touch point every single day,” she explained. “Not just our toolbox talks, [but] right on the frontline talking about mental wellness, [and] making sure we have a fit for duty that included mental awareness at the management level and our entire organization.”

Mental health was a prevalent talk in the chat as companies had all their staff working from home, or in the case of carriers like Rosenau (Umbach was in office throughout being an essential service). Burfoot delved into maintaining employee engagement in a work from home environment.

“Employee engagement certainly became more challenging through the pandemic. I feel that a lot of the issues that existed prior to the covid pandemic became exacerbated through COVID-19,” she said. “Certainly, its challenging and mental health especially was – and continues to be – challenging, not just for AMTA staff but for much of the province and beyond. Especially when working with reduced on-site capacities both for those who remained open, and definitely for those who worked from home.”

From that Burfoot discussed the importance of leading by example.

“As leaders we needed to set [an] example by talking about tour own experiences. We found and communicated low cost options for people to receive mental health care safely at home using their benefit plans, and we made sure to reach out to every employee regularly to check-in.”

Nilsen outlined the many documents WCB has available for employees including mental health resources and touched on the mental health continuum chart with colours ranging from green (happy) to yellow, orange and red.

“So, I’m sending something to the WCB saying you know, ‘how are you doing?’ and if all you can tell me is say ‘I’m orange’ that’s enough,” Nilsen said. “I can work with that. You don’t need to get into all the nitty gritty details, just say ‘I’m orange’ and my response is going to be ‘how can I help you?’.

Western Women With Drive would like to thank our attendees, presenters and sponsors: Isaac Instruments, BrokerLink and Trailcon Leasing. We could not have done it without you.